Well if it were up to me, I would classify life forms, higher to lower, based on their ability to act independent of or to manipulate, their Enviroment. Why not?
Ok, I put it My Favorites so I can read it later. The pictures look simple. Thats good for me
I'm not certain that scientists would classify organisms as being 'higher' or 'lower'. I would assume that they treat every organism as something that has evolved in such a way as to survive and reproduce, and that there isn't any other meaningful criterion by which to judge all of them.
I can't speak for anybody else, but I wouldn't classify like this, not least because, as much as we like to put things in boxes, nature is rarely sufficiently discrete to do it robustly.
Alright, well I guess its good ya'll pointed that out then.
Well if consciousness can arise as easily as you say it does, it doesnt make the existence of God less likely to me. Something about evolution just doesnt seem right to me and Im probably not smart enough to figure out what that is. Biology is hard.
I would classify a dolphin as higher than a spider. Spiders build webs but Dolphins form packs and hunt and have a greater range of mobility, they create social enviroments. The dolphin is obviously the higher life form.
And ants? They have a huge range of mobility, work together in packs, manipulate their environment...
Right but ants cant act independently of their environment. They cant play games, for example.
Huh? You're going to have to explain what you mean by 'act independently of environment'. If you mean they can play games, then I have a whole slew of organisms at hand that play. Indeed, play is a well-studied area (this is one of the things Dawkins studies, as ethology - animal behaviour - is his field of study), and it's clear that it's a huge part of the development of many organisms.
I know some animals play games. Rats do this.
Yes.
A bee doesnt choose to sting someone. It is direct consequence of environment.
Right I would say you need to consider both the ability to manipulate and the ability to act independently of environment. Dolphins cant build things that ants can because they dont have required apendages. But I think they demonstrate an ability to act more independently. So you would have to weight one against the other. I dont think this impossible to do..im certainly no expert..